CC BY 4.0 · The Arab Journal of Interventional Radiology 2023; 07(S 01): S1-S41
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1763419
Category: Nonvascular Interventions

Safe Zone to Avoid Pneumothorax in a CT-Guided Lung Biopsy

Nour Maalouf
1   Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Helios Hospital Pforzheim, Pforzheim, Germany
,
Mazen Abou Mrad
2   Department of Anesthesiology, Helios Hospital Pforzheim, Pforzheim, Germany
,
Daniela Lavric
1   Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Helios Hospital Pforzheim, Pforzheim, Germany
,
Lora Vasileva
1   Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Helios Hospital Pforzheim, Pforzheim, Germany
,
Andreas Mahnken
3   Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
,
Jonas Apitzsch
1   Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Helios Hospital Pforzheim, Pforzheim, Germany
› Author Affiliations
› Further Information
 

Introduction: Pneumothorax is one of the most frequent complications of computed tomography (CT)-guided lung biopsies. We aim to identify the safe zone of the needle-pleura angle during a CT-guided lung biopsy.

Method(s): Fifty-two patients underwent CT-guided lung biopsies between January 2020 and September 2022 (27 males, 25 females, median age 70 years). Right and left needle angles were measured and correlated to the incidence of pneumothorax. The minimum delta (δmin) was calculated as the absolute value of the difference between a 90° angle and the right and left angles. t-Test p-values for δmin were conducted.

Result(s): We recorded 29 patients with pneumothorax whether intraprocedural and transient or postprocedural requiring intervention. A total of 32 patients had a δmin ≥ 10°, while 20 had a δmin < 10°. Of the patients with a δmin < 10°, 30% experienced pneumothorax compared with 71.8% in patients with δmin ≥ 10° (p = 0.0023).

Conclusion(s): A needle–pleura angle between 80° and 100° gives the operator a safe zone to reduce the risk of pneumothorax.



Publication History

Article published online:
09 February 2023

© 2023. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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